Product placement goes virtual

TV advertisers find new ways to reach audience

By Stephanie Hoo

Associated Press

Pity the poor advertiser who pays to insert a can of pop or somesuch into a hit TV series, only to have a pesky actor stand in front of it during the money shot —or worse, an overly creative director pushing it out of the shot entirely.

To solve these and other woes, products can now be inserted into a frame digitally —after shooting —to ensure the box of Cheez-Its is facing the right direction, the Ziploc bags are front and center and the Star-Kist tuna isn't out of focus.

Yes, we know advertising is important, but isn't this going too far?

Not really, said David Brenner, president of Marathon Ventures, which is putting virtual products in prime time.

"Part of the reason product placement is becoming more popular is people think it works," he said. "It would suggest that consumers don't really have an issue with this."

Already, Marathon has inserted products into the CBS shows Yes, Dear, Out of Practice, Numb3rs and Still Standing whether it's a box of crackers on a kitchen table or a bottle of window cleaner on a countertop.

"We work very, very hard to find that fine line where location is meaningful enough to be interesting to an advertiser but not so intrusive that it interrupts the creative flow of the show," Brenner said. "We could put a car in a living room, but that wouldn't be contextually logical."

What's clear is that advertisers need new ways to reach consumers in an age when the classic 30-second spot can be fast-forwarded or TiVo'ed out. Last year, the number of product placements on TV rose to 107,839, a rise of more than 25,000 from the year before, according to Nielsen Media Research.

There are signs the trend could be going too far —witness the uproar two years ago when Major League Baseball teamed up with Columbia Pictures to put Spider-Man logos on bases. The deal was quickly abandoned.

And, if ads are all over the place, will we one day become immune to them?

Perhaps, but advertisers evidently haven't reached the saturation point yet. In the meantime, they're going to keep putting ads everywhere imaginable.

 

 

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